LOST parties are the new awesome

Every Wednesday we get together to celebrate one of our favorite television series : LOST season 2.

This time I made cookies, so you know it must have been a special occasion.



Our LOST evenings generally go a little something like this:

Cameron and Jeff come over, and we all comment on how good looking we think we all are. And what great jeans we are all wearing.



And what great shoes!



Then we all sit around discussing important things, such as:
1) what happened last episode, and whether we think the man in the hatch is really an Other
2) which LOST character we all most resemble
3) how much i hate Charlie



Then it is time to get serious. Thanks to the glory of tivo, we can watch the entire episode, commercial-free.

And, pause it when our favorite characters come on the screen.



In case you didn't get a close look at the face inside the heart, this is me letting Sawyer know exactly how I feel about him. Sorry mom - even on TV I fall for the bad boys.



And Betsy falls for the funny ones:
(to each their own, right?)


Then we all snuggle and high-five and stuff. you are all invited to next week's party, if you want in on some of this fun.

Sundance movies are the new awesome

Okay, okay. I know that Sundance was several months ago, but since the New Awesome didn't exist when I was out watching all the films, and now (three whole months later) several of my favorites are making their way to the big screens across the nation, I figured it would be okay to make you guys watch some trailers. These are just two of my must-see films from Sundance this year:

Little Miss Sunshine


I always feel a little silly when telling people that my favorite "independant" film at sundance this year starred Greg Kinear, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin and Steve Carrell. That opens up a whole new discussion on the state of the films at sundance these days that I won't go into. But there is a good reason that this was the film that everyone was talking about this year. The characters are all quirky and loveably defective: Olive is the slightly pudgy aspiring beauty queen; her father, Richard, is a struggling motivational speaker; her mom, Sheryl, has to bring her Proust scholar/brother, Frank, home after his failed suicide attempt; her brother, Dwayne, has taken a Nietzsche-inspired vow of silence until he is old enough to be a fighter pilot; and of course, Grandpa was recently kicked out of his nursing home for snorting heroin. What happens when they all get in an old VW van to go to the Little Miss Sunshine pagent in California? Oh man! Too heartwarming to talk about.

See the Little Miss Sunshine trailer here

Thank You For Smoking



See the trailer for Thank You For Smoking here

You have probably heard about this one, since it is already playing in select theatres. Basically, Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is the chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, and makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers, and does a pretty good job at it. I liked it because working in marketing, i think there is always part of you that is morbidly fascinated with the idea that whatever it is you are selling can seem good when spun correctly.

And, thanks to the wonder of fox searchlight publicity, you can check to see if a free preview of the film is coming to your city! Just RSVP for a free screening (but show up early - just because you RSVP, it does not guarantee you a spot)

caboom! is the new awesome

As you may have noticed from the new awesome, Rebecca and I rarely spend time together on the weekends. She’s always jetting off to Ohio while I’m frolicking in New York City…or she’s vacationing in Utah while I’m stuck business tripping in Scottsdale (I know I never posted about this but trust me, it happened). Turns out Emily Cox was driving to Los Angeles this weekend for an mtv style end to her spring break and was looking for some road trip company. We decided this was the perfect opportunity for some roommate AND Emily Cox bonding (two of the best kinds of bonding). So after work on Friday we met up at Emily’s house and this is where our adventure begins.

Emily drove first because it was her car.


As you might imagine, this is what it’s like being in a car with three girls on a road trip to LA…
“Oh my gosh, bra bra bra boy boy bikini wax tampon tampon!”
"Well, nail polish nail polish thong thong thong eyebrow waxing eyebrow waxing!"

Also, Rebecca entertained herself by hiding behind her head rest.


Also, I entertained myself by making the most beautiful scarf in the entire world.


No road trip in California is complete without a stop here.


First I thought we were eating inside...


then we didn’t.


Six hours later Emily was dropping us off at the Gholdston residence in Newbury Park and she was off on her own adventure, never to be seen again until Sunday. Just as I predicted, the Gholdston’s rolled out the red carpet for their eldest daughter and her roommate. Within 5 minutes of walking in the front door we were greeted by hugs, a weiner dog, bowls of strawberries, grapes and cashews and within 10 minutes Rebecca and I were competing in the most intense competition of our lives. Before I knew what was going on Rebecca had run up to her old bedroom and changed into her solar z cavaricci parachute pants that she only wears for DDR




Even with the lucky pants, Rebecca's mom won the DDR tourney, hands down.

Rebecca and I had countless offers from friends to stay with them but why when her dad made us Belgian waffles w/strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast?


Our main excuse for heading to LA for the weekend was to check out caboom where our good friend Jared Rusten was showing his furniture. So after breakfast we set off for Santa Monica and found Jared, his furniture and a bunch of our friends hanging out.





Some other things that were cool at caboom
iron artwork

weird plants

pretty paper


Also, Rebecca and I were cool at caboom


Rebecca had her own plans for a bit so I set off to the Getty Museum with Ty, Wayne, Greg, Katie and Karen which was fun but I’m still not very good at art.

So many cameras that are not allowed inside the Getty.


After that we ended up at the Peterson/Niel residence for some ice cream/pool/ping pong/slow dancing fun.
I'm holding the correct type of ice cream cones



Added bonuses were running into Casey (she's the one licking Dave, I mean her ice cream in the above picture) who recently relocated to LA and meeting Tanner who is famous on the internet. Also fun, beating Tanner at pool 15 minutes after meeting him in real life.


Look how serious Rebecca is about beating Keith at pool



Brian and Todd were so happy we were all hanging out at their house


After another great nights sleep at the Gholdston’s we said goodbye to Sadie.

And hello to Emily Cox! We made a couple necessary stops at Rebecca's favorite thrift store

and in Denmark.


Being home safe and sound in San Francisco is the new awesome.

Cameron's dad is the new awesome

Look who came to visit us tonight...Cameron (boring) and his DAD (exciting)!!!!
What a special treat for Rebecca and I.

Homemade haircuts are the new awesome

Sometimes when you haven't seen your right eye for two weeks you realize it's time for a haircut.

But you don't want to pay $75 for someone to cut your bangs so you do it yourself for free.

What to do with the extra funds? Road trip to Los Angeles with Rebecca and Emily Cox of course!

Driving to Utah is the new awesome

There are not many things that make spending the equivalent of a day of your life crammed in a car terribly appealing, but since this weekend one of my favorite san francisco friends, paul ferney, was having his 30th birthday party in Salt Lake City, and since the road tripping companions promised to be interesting, I agreed to make the drive to Utah.

We strategically chose to leave in the middle of the night, when the weather was the absolute worst. We hit snow in all the expected mountain passes, and even had to put on chains at one point. Mostly Paul put the chains on the car, Jordan looked cute and gave moral support, Cameron text messaged a girl, and i took pictures. But we all stood in the snow.



It worked out pretty well for me, since the second that I saw that our car was a stick shift, I was automatically relegated to the back seat for the entire journey. It is a good thing that I like Cameron because this is how much room we had the whole way:


Eventually we made it, and Jordan threw Paul's party that night at a swank little place downtown called Martine. It was a lovely 3 course affair where you had to choose between soups and salads and appetizers and entrees made of things like "toasted orzo with caramelized escarole" and "Watercress-Leek Cream." I am still not totally sure what all the food was that I ate, but it was pretty tasty.

And we all got presents on our plates, even though it was Paul's birthday. It was maybe the cutest thing that I have ever seen.



There were fun prizes like eggs that grow into plants, and moleskins, and sushi dishes for everyone! Alisha shows us how much fun it is to get presents when it is not even your birthday:

Some of Paul's family and friends told some awkward/heartwarming stories about how paul used to punch people in the crotch when he was younger, and how glad everyone is that he decided to pursue art. Then we all popped poppers when he blew out all the candles on his cake!


Afterwords we headed to a comedy club, and since it was Paul's birthday, he got to go onstage and do a little improv with the comedian with the funny mouth.


What a night! Happy birthday, paul.

After that, I pretty much just had one day left in SLC. I spent it wisely in the company of Utah's finest - first breakfast at the Original Pancake House in the morning.


Damien was moving around too much to take a non-blurry photo, but he was there too and I blame my choice of delicious banana pancakes with 'tropical' sauce on him. Yum.

I don't know who these people were, but the matching bluetooth ear pieces was just too much. They wore them all through breakfast. I hope I find my perfect true love match like that some day.


Then there were Utah thrift stores, and furniture places and industrial salvage yards to scour. I even almost gauged my eye out because that is how hardcore i am when I am looking for industrial salvage. (I don't think this picture does the wound above my eye justice, by the way. You should all be feeling a lot more sorry for me right now than I think you are.)


And to top off the day, Suzanne and Kristen threw a party with brownies and fun people in their cute apartment. I only took one photo at the party, but luckily it was with two hot girls i know.


And then, we were back in the car again. The weather was much better on the way home, so by the time we got to Reno, we felt like we had made such good time that we could stop for a little dinner. We thought about some fast food - but then we asked ourselves, wwtnad? and we decided to go eat a Circus Circus Buffet!

It turns out that people in Reno are not very camera-handy, because we had to stop 3 different people to take a proper group photo of us. We kept standing in front of some casino landmark - big growling tigers or glowing signs or something - and they would just take the picture of the four of us, and cut all the identifying features around us totally out of the photo.

Finally we got someone to take the photo of use the way that we asked - standing triumphantly under a glowing sign, each of us showing how many courses we successfully put away in the Buffet. (The number had a direct correlation with how many times each of us had to use the restroom immediately afterwords too, i think.)


Just in case you don't really think that the buffet sounds all that great, i would like you to look a little bit closer at exactly how much fun we are having, and how much we are enjoying our food:




The buffet had the standard fare - we all took our photos at our favorite themed stations, but Cameron was the only one that wanted to dance about it:


And then we made it back alive. It was pretty much the best weekend ever !!